Church

We went to church for the first time in THREE weeks. It felt so good to be around our ward family and of course since it is Christmas there were lots of visitors and more cheer than normal. I am so thankful for melting snow and warmer tempatures.

One of our speakers touched on something I had never thought of before. He was talking about his father and how his father always said that being out in nature is as close to God as he needed. The speaker said he never knew what to say to him but over the years he has compiled some talks from the General Authorities, and one of the talks that he quoted from said that if we come to church and we partake of the sacrament without the right spirit that we are basicly offering up to our Heavenly Father the wrong offering (talking about Cain). We need to be in church on sunday and we need to partake of the sacrament in the right way, we shouldn't just eat a piece of bread and drink a little cup of water. We all of course know that but I had never thought of it as offering up the wrong sacrafice.

I am not good at getting the point across, I am writing this so that I will remember it and since I speak "Lora" I will know what I am talking about ;)

Merry stinking Christmas

THIS

AND THIS

PUT ME IN A BAD MOOD!!

BAH HUM BUG

Thankful Thursday crashes with Flashback Friday :)

(Jacki, Hope, Tayler and Emma in 2000)


I am so Thankful for my CHILDREN and LAUGHTER!

Funny things our kids have said:

On October 14th 1994

We went to Lehman's Cave for a family reunion. In the cave I mentioned to Hope that Heavenly Father made the cave. She wanted to know if he hung up the stalactites with a hammer and nails :) On our way home from this trip we passed by the McCollaums house, they had a witch and a ghost hanging in the window and Hope said "Bonnie has a witch and the Holy ghost hanging in her window" :)

December 2008

We were getting ready for prayer and we were talking and things and Jackie had been ripping a thread off of her shirt for about 10 minutes and decided to scare Hope with it. She rolled it into a ball and flicked it at Hope and yelled "SPIDER!", as it landed on Hopes leg. Hope yelled, jumped back, rolled on the floor kicking and screaming. Hope has arachnophobia, but we didn't realize how much. It was so shocking and surprising to us all we couldn't help but laugh.

Thanksgiving 1997

Jackie kept asking me if she could have cookies and desserts before we had eaten the Thanksgiving meal. I told her she had to eat something good first, she looked at me and said "Mom, cookies are good". :)

Another funny thing Jackie did around this time, she was playing go fish with my Mom. I was helping for a while and she asked for a certain card and Grandma didn't have it so Jackie had to go fish, well she got what she had asked for so I told her she got to go again because she got what she wanted. I had to leave for a second but I could hear the game and I noticed that Jackie kept saying "I got what I wanted" so I came and watched for a while and on Jackie's next turn she asked for a card and had to go fish, she drew a different card than she had asked for but she said she got what she wanted. I said no you didn't and she said "yes I want this card, it's what I wanted".

I had to be on my toes with Jackie :)

Year 1999

Tayler has always made me laugh. One time I spanked him and he looked up at me and said "You hurt Jackie's brother". :)

July 5th 1999

I was upstairs working on the computer, Tayler came upstairs picking his nose I said "Gross were did you come from" and he said "downstairs". :)

December 1999

Our Primary went caroling and we rode on a flat bed trailer of a Semi. When we got home later that evening Tayler ran in the house and said, "Guess what Dad we got to ride on a Sam I am". :)

One more from Tayler since it is Christmas.

December 24th 1999

Santa came to visit (Christmas tradition in Sutherland). Tayler and Emma were scared and didn't want Santa to come back that evening. I told them not to worry they would be asleep and wouldn't even hear Santa. Tayler looked at me and said,"I still have ears when I'm asleep". :)

September 5th, 1999

Heidi and Brian came to visit and we went to desert mountain to hike around and have fun. Brian sat in a hollowed out area on this rock and said he was King. Emma started calling him "Brian King" (Lion King) :)

I asked Emma how much food she wanted on her plate, she would say "too much". It took me some time but I finally figured out she wanted "Two much". :)

May 2002

I was eating breakfast with the kids and we were talking about the night before. They had all been in bed when I got home from taking Jackie to a skating party. I said that everyone was asleep when I got home and Emma said "I was asleep like this," and then she showed us how she was asleep and then said "and it was cute too". :)

December 2008

We went Christmas shopping and George and Emma were in the hat area. George put a hat on Emma and said "Emma, look it's you" (as in it looks nice on you, total sarcasm, it was an ugly hat) and Emma said "Of course it's me, under this ugly hat!"

We were eating dinner and Jackie was being gross (eating like pig) and Emma said, " That's disgusting Jackie" and instantly burped like a.................Man. Totally had us ROFL!!

Snowed In

Apparently we are going to be snowed in this whole week before Christmas. It snowed on Sunday, church was canceled and the kids have been out of school for two days and it is supposed to snow tomorrow, Thursday and on the weekend.

What better to do on a cold winter day than make soup! Here are some of our favorites.

West African Chicken Peanut Soup.

2 cups diced cooked chicken

1 1/3 cup diced onion

3 tsp. minced garlic

4 T. dark sesame oil

3 tsp. curry powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp dried red pepper flakes

6 cups chicken broth

1/2 cup tomato paste

2 cups diced stewed tomatoes

6 T chunky peanut butter

In a large pot, saute the chicken, onion, and garlic in sesame oil for about 10 minutes until the onion is tender. Add the curry powder, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes and saute 1 minute more.

Add the chicken broth, tomato past, stewed tomatoes, and peanut butter, stirring until well-combined. Heat until very hot but not boiling.

Cumin Flatbread (Morocco) (Eat with chicken peanut soup)

1 1/3 cup warm water (105-115 degrees F)

1 T dry yeast

3 T extra-virgin olive oil

2 1/4 t. course salt

2 t ground cumin

3 cups bread flour

Place warm water in bowl of mixer. Sprinkle yeast over and stir to combine. Let stand 10 minutes.

Add oil, salt, and ground cumin.

Using the dough hook, gradually beat in flour. Continue beating 5 minutes

Turn dough onto lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth-about 2 minutes. Dough will be very soft.

Place in plastic bag and let rise in the refrigerator overnight.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Brush 12X18 baking sheet with olive oil.

Place dough in pan. Using fingertips, press out dough. covering pan completely (dough will be very thin). Lightly oil the top of the bread.

Bake until golden, about 30 minutes. Remove from pan and serve warm or at room temperature.

(Very yummy together, the soup is spicey. Sorry this is double spacing?)

Another Favorite is Minestrone soup (Serves 16-20)

1/2 cup olive oil .................2 cups canned tomatoes...................2 lg. onions, chopped

2 T basil .................... 2 carrots,sliced ....................2 cloves garlic

2 stalks celery, sliced................1/2 head cabbage, chopped.....................2 lg potatoes, diced

1 can red beans (14 oz)..............1 can green beans.................... 1 cup shell macaroni

1 can garbanzo beans (14 oz)...........salt to taste .................12 cups vegetable broth (or chicken)

Heat oil in a stock pot, add onion and fry until soft but not brown. Add everything except cabbage and pasta. Simmer several hours until thick. Just before serving, add cabbage and past. Cook for additional 20 minutes or until cabbage and pasta are tender.

If you make this Minestrone you will never want to eat at Olive Garden again. Really it is that good! Enjoy and stay warm.

Lego Robotics III

(Our team is 914, they ran the program three times. The picture below is the team cheering because they were able to complete one of the harder tasks.)

WE ARE GOING TO STATE!!!!

The Banks Bots have struck again.

They got First place!

January 17th they will be going to state.

What a year, these kids and their coaches work very hard to get to this point. Hours and hours are put into this competition, they meet every Friday and Saturday evening for about two hours every time and then the closer we get to competition the more hours they put into it. They have to build a Robot, program it to complete tasks. They have to put together a presentation, present it to the community. They have to be drilled on how they built the robot, how they programmed it, what they learned, how they work as team and sooooo many more areas.

A Big Thank you to Uncle Sid, and Dan for all the hard work they put into this every year!!

Flashback Friday

(Hope and cousin Trevor)

I have been reading people's blogs about their children and the cute things they say (most have little kids). I really like these posts but since my kids aren't little anymore and the things they say are not quite so darling I thought I would share some of the things I wrote down when they were little.

I will share a story about Hope first. She is about 2 in this picture and at this stage in her life she liked to sing and dance. She would sing "Rock a baby" and another song I remember was the ABC song she would sing along with me, the cute part was when she would get to "LMNOP" she would sing "LMNgoPEE" :) Too cute!

Thankful Thursday

Today I am Thankful for a Father's love.

My Husband, Father of my children

My Heavenly Father

My Father

Christmas Party

Last night was our ward Christmas Party, it was very nice. Emma got the chance to be Mary, she was so pretty. I had fun dressing her up. The pictures are from the practice earlier in the day.

Joseph (Trevor) was so bored we had to put the picture up so you could all enjoy it and Mary looks a little bored herself. I thought it was funny how Emma got herself ready for the part, she kind of resembled a ghost :) She was trying to hide the dress, she didn't like it and it didn't help that an older sibling (Jackie) laughed at it either.

Flashback Friday

Long ago our ward in Utah had a Christmas tradition, Santa would come to our homes on Christmas Eve. Here is one of our girls unhappy and if you look close Santa isn't very happy either :) Can any of you tell me which one of my girls this is?
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For those who chose Emma you are correct!

Sick

The last little while I have been sick with bronchitis, first time ever hhhhmmmm does that mean I am getting old? Jackie has also been sick, poor girl. So what should a couple of sick girls do?

How about watch hours and hours and hours of......... The Office. Thank you Netflix and Roku.

Jackie is definitely hooked, it's like her own personal heroine :) (Twilight)

I am trying hard to not be bugged by some of the people but I am intrigued by a couple of characters.

Pam and Jim

Why are these two not married? I mean come on, it is starting to bug me a little bit, but I like them the most.

Next is Dwight aka the weird guy

I am not sure what it is about him but his stuff usually makes me laugh. Him and the girl that likes him :)

Not sure why but Kevin is the next person that makes me laugh maybe it is because he laughs all the time, my favorite episode with him was when a new lady in the office thought that Kevin was mentally handicapped

Anybody else like these guys? Definitely not my favorite show but when you are sick and drugged up it is entertaining.